Product Specifications
I/A Series® Intelligent SCADA
Master Station
Advanced Application Programming Interface (AAPI)
INTRODUCTION
The Advanced Application Programming Interface
(AAPI) provides a user development environment to
integrate distributed or local applications with the
I/A Series Intelligent SCADA (iSCADA) Master
Station (Refer PSS 21S-2M1 B3).
The AAPI provides access to iSCADA data and
functionality and provides a straightforward, powerful
platform for building redundant and fault-tolerant
applications. Using the AAPI, users and developers
are free to focus on solving application domain
problems. The interface allows low-cost application
reuse, system migration, and the extension of system
life.
When combined with Invensys ArchestrA™, the
defacto industry standard for systems integration, the
AAPI OPC DA Server allows end users and system
integrators to provide Windows®.NET™ based
applications with real-time data access from iSCADA
systems.
PSS 21S-2M5 B3
KEY FEATURES
• Intuitive SQL based data access and functionality
• Interface bindings for Tcl/Tk, C/C++, and ODBC
• Synchronous and asynchronous query execution
• Change-driven notification of data updates
• Field point control with execution feedback
• Support for both UNIX® and Windows® platforms
• Fault-tolerant application development
infrastructure
• Query batching for efficient reading/writing
• Real-time access of iSCADA Master Station data
by ArchestrA™ enabled applications
INTUITIVE SQL BASED INTERFACE
Three AAPI interface bindings provide simple
programming language wrappers for enhanced
Structured Query Language (SQL). Except where
asynchronous data publication is required, standard
SQL grammar is used for iSCADA Master Station
data access and functionality.
Scripting Application Development
The AAPI Tool Command Language (Tcl/Tk) interface
binding provides a scripting interface for testing,
prototyping, and small to medium application
development. The AAPI Tcl/Tk package is fully
integrated with standard Tcl/Tk interpreters to provide
application developers with a complete application
development environment. Tcl/Tk script, distributed
with the AAPI, provides interactive SQL session
access and display of iSCADA data and functionality.
C/C++ Application Development
For advanced application development the AAPI
includes a C/C++ interface binding. The AAPI C/C++
interface supports full integration with existing event
dispatchers provided by standard programming
environments such as the Windows® event loop used
for Windows® GUI applications.
PSS 21S-2M5 B3
Page 2
Figure 1. Tcl/Tk interactive SQL Session
ODBC Interface
For data exchange with existing Microsoft Office®
applications, the AAPI provides an Open Database
Connectivity (ODBC) driver. Thus providing Microsoft
Excel® and Microsoft Access® applications, with
direct read and write access to the iSCADA system.
Figure 2. ODBC Connectivity with Microsoft Excel®
Synchronous and Asynchronous Queries
Queries to the AAPI can be executed synchronously
or asynchronously.
Synchronous queries block the calling application and
return a result set or error condition after the query is
completed. Synchronous queries are easily extended
to asynchronous queries by including a callback
function or procedure when executing the query.
Asynchronous queries can be used to improve
programming efficiency by allowing flexibility in
waiting for and processing large result sets and
improve data throughput rates using batched queries.
Asynchronous Message Notification
The AAPI extends the standard SQL syntax to
provide a publish/subscribe mechanism for
asynchronous notification of iSCADA point changes.
Applications can subscribe to specific columns in the
iSCADA points table. If the point attribute is updated
in the iSCADA system, the AAPI publishes the new
value to the application using a supplied callback
function or procedure.
Asynchronous message notification is also available
for application tables. Refer to “Support for Fault-
Tolerant Applications” for application table support.
Asynchronous Point Change Notifications
The AAPI publish/subscribe logic has been designed
to minimize CPU usage and iSCADA system
resources. Figure 3 is an example of CPU usage of
the AAPI components for various publications data
transfer rates. The AAPI provides a level of
decoupling between applications and the iSCADA
real-time system whereby additional applications,
monitoring the same points, do not increase the load
on real-time iSCADA system process.
Figure 3. Published Data CPU Loading
Access Control
Access to the AAPI is controlled with username and
password authentication.

REAL-TIME OBJECT ACCESS
General
The AAPI maps a subset of the iSCADA object
schema into an object-relational table structure.
The base points table contains the current value,
quality information, point description and classification
by category, area, and alarm group, and scanning
device name.
The analogue points table, in addition to the base
points table, contains the alarm limits, engineering
units and limits, control type and controllable limits,
and periodic calculation point type and source point.
While the digital points table, in addition to the base
points table, contains the current and normal state,
valid point range, alarm and event processing mode,
periodic calculations information, and control type.
Historical data
The AAPI provides read access to the iSCADA
history database. Historical value and quality data
can be retrieved based in local or UTC time ranges.
Historical data is returned in an efficient change
based format.
Field Point Control
The AAPI provides programmatic access to iSCADA
controllable points. Using SQL functions, an
application can reserve and execute controls on field
points. Typically, an application firstly reserves the
control point. Once the control reserve is established,
the application then sets the control point using the
control execute function. The AAPI supports trip
close, momentary raise/lower, scaled raise/lower, and
set point controls.
Systems List Access
Applications can generate system events within the
iSCADA event sub-system.
MULTI-PLATFORM SUPPORT
The AAPI client libraries are available for UNIX® and
Windows® operating systems (Refer AAPI release
notes for currently supported platforms).
The AAPI provides platform independence for Tcl/Tk
applications. Applications written in Tcl/Tk run on the
supported platforms without changes to the AAPI
interface commands in the source scripts.
Applications written using the C/C++ interface require
only minor modifications for the supported platforms.
PSS 21S-2M5 B3
Page 3
FAULT-TOLERANT INFRASTRUCTURE
The AAPI extends the iSCADA fault-tolerant platform
to the application development environment. AAPI
clients can reside, in redundant configuration, on the
SCADA hosts or on remote application hosts. The
AAPI middleware manages fail-over due to host,
network, or client failure.
Application Application
Host 1 Host 2
Redundant LAN
SCADA SCADA
Host 1 Host 2
Figure 4. Example Redundant Configuration
Support for Fault-tolerant Applications
Two key features, application groups and application
state tables, support the development of fault tolerant
applications.
When an application starts, it can elect to join an
application group where applications exist as
redundant instances of the same application. The first
application to join the group is elected the group
master. If the master application fails then the AAPI
middleware selects a new master. Each remaining
members of the group can subscribe to be notified if it
is elected as master.
Application state tables provide a mechanism for
applications within the same group to share data.
Each application within a group can create or drop
tables and select, delete, insert, or update rows within
the table.
BATCH PROCESSING
Accessing real-time objects one-at-a-time incurs
significant performance costs due to the overhead of
multiple round trips between processes. The AAPI
reduces the inter-process and network overhead by
batch processing transfers. The batch processing
facility is activated by wrapping a series of queries
with the AAPI batch start and batch run statements.
For example, on a 502Mhz Sun Blade 100, a client
application can expect batched data retrieval rates of
250 real-time point objects per seconds or update
rates of 90 real-time point object per second. Using
the subscription mechanism (real-time point data is
cached) client applications can retrieve up to 3000
real-time values per second (actual performance is
affected by system configuration).
PSS 21S-2M5 B3
Page 4

ORACLE® EXTENSION
For direct integration with Oracle®
databases an
optional feature available with the AAPI is the
Oracle® data provider. This data provider supports
direct query access through the AAPI to tables in an
Oracle® applications or enterprise database. The
Oracle® data providers allows AAPI applications to
configure a mapping between Oracle® tables and
virtual AAPI tables, select, update, insert and delete
rows in Oracle® tables, and execute table joins
across the iSCADA and Oracle® databases.
In conjunction with the high-availability features of
Oracle®, the AAPI can be used to develop fault-
tolerant solutions spanning across iSCADA and
Oracle® data sources/stores.

ORDERING INFORMATION
Part Number Description
SY-1102092 IA SCADA AAPI ODBC SQL 5 NT Clients - I/A Series Intelligent SCADA AAPI
Windows ODBC driver. (Licensed per connection)

SY-1102093 IA SCADA AAPI C/C+ - I/A Series Intelligent SCADA AAPI C/C++
Windows or UNIX client libraries. (Licensed per station)

SY-1102094 IA SCADA AAPI TCL - 5 Windows or UNIX Clients - I/A Series Intelligent SCADA AAPI TCL
Windows or UNIX client libraries. (Licensed per connection)

SY-1102095 IA SCADA AAPI Unix Server - I/A Series Intelligent AAPI server, read/write access to real-time
data, read/write access to historical data, and read/write access to events. (Licensed per station)

SY-1102096 IA SCADA AAPI ORACLE Data Provider - I/A Series Intelligent SCADA AAPI
read/write access to ORACLE. (Licensed per ORACLE database)

SY-1102097 IA SCADA AAPI OPC DA Server - I/A Series Intelligent SCADA AAPI Windows OPC DA Server.
(Licensed per Windows server host station)

This product uses software developed by Spread Concepts LLC for use in the Spread toolkit.
For more information about Spread, see http://www.spread.org.

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